‘I won’t victimise myself…it’s just part of growing up.’
US singer Amerie recently spoke to Sixshot.com about her mixed racial background. Amerie was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts to an African-American father and a Korean mother. Her father was in the United States military and this enabled Amerie to travel to and live in many different places, including Alaska, Texas, Germany, and South Korea. In fact Amerie’s first language is Korean, however, after the family left Korea, Amerie’s mother made a conscious effort to limit the use of Korean with her daughters out of fear that it would impede their development of English proficiency. Asked if her Korean background and the music of Korea like K-pop influenced her sound, Amerie said: ‘I think my Korean heritage shaped more of my personality and more of who I am growing up, which in turn affects my music. ‘I think it did shape it but I also grew up listening to classical music, soul music, pop music, and heavy metal.’
She described her liking for heavy metal music as a phase she went through in the fifth and sixth grade and went on to say: ‘I like to listen to a lot of things. What I can say about Korean music is that it is very rhythmic. It’s very drum heavy like African music—there are similarities.’